Story+1976-09-26+Phoenix,+AZ

´´I grew up in this small town, was about....was about ten thousand people, I lived in this ....it was on this main street in town....my mother, she used to....work downtown as a secretary in one of the big buildings....my father, he worked for a while he was a a guard at the jail, sometimes he worked in the, worked in the plastics factory, worked in this old rugmill till they closed it down....a lot of times he was just in-between jobs, sitting at home....I used to.....whenever I got the chance, I used to run off to New York as much as I could....(?)....but I always knew....that I was gonna have to go back and when I went back, he´d be sitting there at the kitchen table waiting for me....´cause what he used to do, my mother used to sit in the frontroom and watch TV all night....my father used to turn off all the lights in the house around nine o´clock, he´d get a six-pack and sit in the kitchen all night long in the dark.....he used to lock up the frontdoor so that me and my sister used to have to come in ‘round the back.....and I´d come back from the city, I´d come back from being out, if I came back real late or if I hadn´t been home for few days, I´d stand out there in the driveway and I could look through the screendoor, see the light of his cigarette burning in the dark....and I knew that he was just sitting there waiting for me to come in....so I’d slick my hair back as tight as I could....climb up on the porch....slip in the door and hope that he didn´t stop me, hope that I´d make it to my room......and he´d wait till I got just about to the bottom of the stairs.....and he´d call me to come back, come back and sit down....and to talk to him for a while.....he’d start off talking about nothing much, ´bout what I was doing at school....pretty soon he’d be asking me where I´d been, who I was going out with, where I was getting my money from.....what I thought I was doing with myself.....pretty soon we´d be screaming at each other and my mother’d be running in from the frontroom to try to keep us from fighting with each other and try to pull him off me....and I’d be running out the backdoor screaming, telling him, telling him, telling him, telling him how it was my life and I could do what I wanted to do....”
 * 26.09.76 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´It´s My Life´**

´´How´s things going in Phoenix these days, huh ? (cheers) long time no see.....this is for ....anybody go see the pom-pom girls the other day ? (some cheers) this is for you....”
 * 26.09.76 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Thunder Road´**

´´I was reading in the news the other day....that they were excavating....over in Egypt ....at the site....of a proposed new Holiday Inn.....and the scientists was digging down into the earth....they dug down....into the earth and they came....they came upon a tomb....(?) when they opened the tomb.....was nothing....except a big black hole.... bleeding down to the ground....and they couldn´t see nothing in that hole....they couldn´t reach nothing.... and all they could hear....was this beat....coming up from out of the heart of the Earth....so they traced this beat back.....to the beginning of the universe.....when the sun collided....at the left side of Jupiter....with a ´55 Chevy....and the Earth rolled out of the trunk....now, when we play this beat....strange things begin to happen....grown men fall to their knees and cry, girls throw off their clothes and jump into the middle of the aisle.....good girls go bad and the bad girls get worse....”
 * 26.09.76 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´She´s the One´**

´´This is....this song´s gonna be, uh, be on the new album.....whenever that comes around, I´m doing my best but it´s a, it´s a fight....so this is a song, this is a song, there´s this avenue back home called Kingsley Avenue....oh (?)(chuckles) it´s called Kingsley Avenue, the Kingsley, Kingsley and Ocean Avenue, they....form a big oval that....and for a whole lot of years, people been just driving around in circles on them two streets, I drove around in circles on them two streets for a long time and uh, this is a song called ´Something in the Night´....”
 * 26.09.76 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Something in the Night´**

´´(?)....you from New York ? (cheers) who´s from New Jersey ? (cheers) who´s from Phoenix ? (cheers) alright.....anybody from Tombstone ? (cheers) I found a shirt that said ´A town too tough to die´....(?)....”
 * 26.09.76 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Jungleland´**

´´Huh ?....well....there´s a sad end to this story....but this, this happened to me years ago ....ever since I shaved off my beard, this girl don´t go out with me no more but, uh.....still wherever you are.....Rosie come out tonight..... (....)Ladies and gentlemen, the educated member of the band....the only member of the combo....with a certified high school diploma.....on the piano, to the far left of the stage.... Professor Roy Bittan....play it, Roy (Roy plays)....what are you all doing in my room ? where am I ? is this New Jersey ?....one, two, three, four....on the guitar, bringing you such hits as ‘I Don’t Wanna Go Home’, ‘Sweeter than Honey’, Miami Steve Van Zandt ....on the bass guitar, Mr.Garry W.Tallent....on the drums, the Mighty Max....on the organ....now you see him, now you don´t, Phantom Dan.....and last but not least....king of the universe....master of the whole motherfucking universe....Mr.Hollywood.....the next President....the Big Man, Clarence Clemons.....”
 * 26.09.76 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Rosalita´**

´´Anybody here from Philly ? (some cheers) a few people (?) I see, I see, ok, alright, we´re gonna do this for these people.....we´re gotta play this ´cause these people made this big sign and if I don´t play this, I´ll be in trouble....hope I remember the words, I didn´t practise yet (?)(chuckles)....Professor, assistance please....”
 * 26.09.76 Phoenix, AZ, intro to ´Growin´ Up´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//